Aspects of the Hazardous Waste Programme in the Netherlands

Abstract

The disposal of wastes of all kinds in an environmentally acceptable manner presents a complex problem in the Netherlands. Densely populated and highly industrialised, with an extensive use of its soil for agriculture and dependent for its water supply on ground and surface water, the country, a large part of which is low-lying, offers but few areas which are suitable for waste disposal by landfill. The scarcity of landfill locations and at the same time the necessity to save raw materials and energy, have determined the waste disposal policy and, consequently, the waste disposal programme of the Netherlands government. Thus, the generation of domestic and industrial waste in general, and of hazardous waste in particular, has to be reduced wherever and whenever possible. Processing and re-use of wastes and recovery of materials and energy from wastes have accordingly to be maximised so as to reduce to an absolute minimum the amount of waste which can only be disposed of by landfill.